This year's fall play, "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten" took place in Judd Theater on Oct. 12-14. Submitted photo.

Students collaboratively perform “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten”

By Shaylin Stephenson on October 18, 2017

Based on a collaboration of narrative written by Robert Fulghum, Oklahoma Christian University students performed “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten” Oct. 12-14 in Judd Theatre.

Director Scott Hale said he enjoyed seeing the progression of the play and how the actors formed into their characters.

“The very first couple of stories are the only ones really set in kindergarten, and then everything else is just teenagers and adulthood,” Hale said. “[The actors] connected really quickly into the kindergarten role. They could just be a kid and kind of go crazy, but I was a little interested when they were playing an 80-year-old and they have done beautifully. I’m very pleased.”

As he watched the cast latch onto the true meaning behind the play, Hale said the production had “parable-like qualities,” which he hopes resonated with the audience throughout the sets.

“It’s a very positive message about the things we have in common as human beings, rather than the things that divide us,” Hale said. “It has been wonderful to me to experience this, and being around this material has really helped lift me up, and I think with a lot of the cast as well. It’s engineered to make you feel something, very purposely.”

Sophomore Abigail Kent said she enjoyed her time working with Hale, as well as experiencing the play’s overall theme of transitioning from childhood to adulthood. Kent said adulthood connects with the game of ‘hide and seek,’ in which the play parallels ‘hide and seek’ to finding oneself.

“[Hale is] a fantastic director, very much focused on the end goal of a successful play, but also equally focused on the growth of each individual actor that is apart of it, so that has been a wonderful experience,” Kent said. “The play is a balance of walking people down memory lane of childhood, recognizing and analyzing the aspects of adult life.”

Sophomore Seth Parker said he defends the right of young kids having an outlook on life, which adults should strive for and hopes the different morals of each scene encouraged the audience to be ‘lights’ in the world.

“First looking at it, you would see all the scenes as a different story, but overall, the theme it’s mostly about being the light and the impact that children have on everyone; it seems to get lost as we grow up,” Parker said. “Everyone knows when children are in the room, when they’re laughing and, definitely, crying. We’re supposed to be the light, and we lose our radiance and get weighed down by the pesky things.”

Parker said he is thankful for the new friendships that were formed during play rehearsals.

“There aren’t a lot of people in the cast, so we’ve been able to get really close with each other and get to know each other really well, so I’ve made some friends,” Parker said. “The biggest take-away that I’ve gotten from this is that everybody is at a different point in their life, and everybody has different needs, but sometimes one point can meet a whole lot of needs and it’s incredible how one production can change so much.”